Autumn/Winter 2012/13 Home Interiors Trend

Having spent some time on the internet researching the incoming trends for this Autumn/Winter season, I thought I'd share them here.

So what's the trend to be? Answer: colour, colour and more colour. Nice bright vivid colours in lime green, turquoise, magenta and orange, along with some gray and white to take the edge off the brightness.

I love having a bit of brightness in my decor, I already have red accenting cream walls and dark wood floor. I may change it to turquoise for the winter though for a bit of a change. The key to adding colour is moderation: maybe one accent wall, several cushions or other accessory items. Purchase lots of items in the same color to add even more impact. This creates colour repetition in your interior and unifies it. Keep your expensive items neutral and add the colour with lampshades, cushions, rugs, throws and flowers (dried or real) and your decorating budget will go much further.

The trend over the last few seasons has been neutrals with black and white added. The good news is that you can keep all of that, just change accent items, like this:

The full size warmer 'Flare' (below, £35) would feel at home in this room. 

 As would the midsize warmer 'Rosso' (£30)

Gorgeous pops of citrus could be added to this room:

Simply replace the candles with any of the these midsize warmers (£30): 

For aqua fans, this room might be just the thing:

Fullsize Aqua (£35) fits the bill:

Midsize Azure (£30) would feel at home:

So which would be your colour of choice to brighten up your winter home?  Let me know either by signing in to follow this blog and commenting below or at www.facebook.com/scentsifythenation

All of the warmers featured in this blog can be bought at: http://niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk/buy

Thanks for reading!

Trend information from: http://activerain.com/blogsview/3408197/2013-color-trends-by-foxy-interiors-central-florida

How to Make Liquid Laundry Detergent

I'm no eco-warrior, I don't even buy into the whole mankind has created climate change argument, I'm more on the side of the planet has cyclical events - anyhow, that's a whole different post.  No, I'm not an eco-warrior, but I am a money saving warrior, especially since every time I go to the supermarket prices have shot up again.  I was never particularly profligate with money anyway but I bought everything I needed..... until now.

When I go to the supermarket and see the cheapest brand name liquid laundry detergent is £4 for 1 litre I'm kind of put out by that - I mean, really, £4, is that really what it costs to produce, package, transport and a little bit on top for the retailer?  I couldn't really accept that so I started looking for a way to produce it myself.  I costed it all out before I bought any of the ingredients - I also wanted to see how readily available ingredients were.  The result?  Five litres of liquid laundry detergent for £2.95!!!  And it's not difficult to make at all, so here goes with a quick tutorial on how to do it yourself.

First you'll need to assemble the ingredients, I got the recipe from http://whynotsew.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html.  I halved this recipe because I don't have the storage facilities for two gallons, here's what I used:

1 bar of Dove (100g)
1/2 cup of Soda Crystals
1/2 cup of Borax substitute (you can't buy Borax in this country because of EU regulations!!)
A 5l container
Funnel
Spoon for stirring
Grater

The measuring spoon at the front is the equivalent of half an American cup measurement so I used one scoop this size.

It's actually a longer job to grate soap than you might imagine, but persevere because the end result is worth it.

And here is the grated bar of Dove.

I then half filled this pan with hot tap water and popped it on the cooker. 

Just a word of warning here - producing the detergent is not cooking, it is chemistry so reasonable precautions need to be taken for the next step (like wearing rubber gloves).

When your soap has all dissolved add the Borax and the Soda crystals and stir until dissolved (keep the pan on the heat during this).  WARNING: when you add the Borax it fizzes up slightly so make sure you've got a big pan to do this in.

You'll notice that the mixture thickens to the same consistency of shop bought detergent, keep it on the heat to thicken more then leave to cool and pour into your 5L container.  Top up the container with hot tap water - I then left it to cool before I put the lid on.

Here's my 5L container:

As you can see, I didn't quite fill it to the top, I wanted to see if there was any expansion during cooling.  After around 6 hours there was no expansion so I topped it right up, put the lid on and gave it a good shake.

I was using Surf and have a measuring cup that comes with it, that's what I'll be using to measure out my detergent and I'll be putting it in the drum, not the drawer.

One last thing, this detergent will not create suds, it's not suds that clean anyway so it doesn't matter, they're just there to make us think the detergent is working when it would work anyway!

So there is my 5L of laundry detergent for £2.95.  Based on 1 litre being 28 wash loads (as it says on my Surf bottle), this is enough for 140 wash loads, which equates to just a fraction more than 2p per load! (0.02107p for those that want to know).

I hope this is clear and that it will be of help to you.  Let me know at www.facebook.com/scentsifythenation how you get on.

Thank you for reading.

Just Do It!

Any visitor to this blog site will very quickly see that I posted two posts fairly close together....then....nothing ......until now! The reason? Laziness, pure and simple!  There, I've said it in public, I am lazy.  Am I lazy about everything or just blogging?  Well, luckily for me it's just the blogging where the laziness really kicks in.  Over the past year I've been working my Scentsy business, growing my customer base and team, so no laziness there.

This post is primarily to update you all with the great new products we have this season.  The Scentsy Autumn/Winter season began on 1st September.  Not only do we have some incredibly gorgeous new warmers, we also have new features to the warmers.  All warmers now feature an on/off switch, a detachable electric cable and brighter LED lights inside.  The brighter lights are especially good with the warmers that 'glow', ie the light really lights up the body of the warmer and turns it into a mini-lamp.  These are the white unglazed porcelain warmers, Fizz, Whoot, Cordeline, Heavenly, Heirloom, Tilia and the Glowing Core.  

Here's a video of the all the great new items we have available now.  These are only the new items, there are lots more that stayed in from last season, you can view them by clicking the link below the video.

Click here to view the entire new season catalogue pdf:  www.niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk 

That's it for today, but come back tomorrow for a post on making your own liquid laundry detergent for pennies.

Have a nice Sunday!